Growing up in Texas, I never thought much about California. I knew it had heat and deserts, oceans and hippies, traffic and urban sprawl, and I had all of those things already, while the things we didn’t have, like mountains and movie stars and earthquakes, didn’t interest me much. The east coast was what gripped my childhood imagination. I longed for dense cities, noise,…

Over the last eighteen months, we’ve spent a lot of time in Carmel-by-the-Sea, eating at great restaurants, admiring all the tiny charming houses, but most of all, loving the beach, with its twisted cypress trees, white sands, and blue-green waters. At this point, I don’t know when we’ll be able to come back again. Not too terribly long, I hope. To say goodbye, we…